


High Hopes Low Bandit HP

by Goldstone_Wolf



Series: High Hopes Low (Blank) [56]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), High Hopes Low Rolls (Web Series)
Genre: Being Buried Alive, Blood, Gen, LOTS of violence, Like More Than Usual, Major Character Injury, Mild Gore, Murder, Near Death Experiences, Poisoning, minor mention of bodies, suffocation, tws for:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26382073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldstone_Wolf/pseuds/Goldstone_Wolf
Summary: Some really rude bandits decide to try and get some money off of Paddy by ambushing him. Understandably, things don’t go well when the rest of High Hopes comes back.
Relationships: Not typing them
Series: High Hopes Low (Blank) [56]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692196
Kudos: 10





	High Hopes Low Bandit HP

**Author's Note:**

> TWs should be listed in tags. I’m tired but I can’t sleep so instead I’m writing, and you’re probably only going to get a lot of fics posted around this time just because the rest of the backlog is going to come through later.  
> High Hopes group: Paddy, Malark, Ava, Brio, Nagar, Gimgar, Mina, Terra, Zada.

“Come on, wood elf,” Leaning over Paddy, the dragonborn pressed her foot harder into his back, “you can help us out. You know that, right?”

She wrapped the claws of her feet around his shoulder, lifted him up, and then slammed him down. Rough dirt and stones pressed into his cheek and he gasped, wincing. Writhing around, Paddy tried to get away. “Aw, is someone scared?” One of the other bandits teased, crouching down and tracing her blade along Paddy’s jawline. She was a human, with choppy black hair and bright green eyes. Freckles darted across her icy pale skin, and when she grinned Paddy could see a particular, worrying light to her eyes. “You know, I think we should just kill him. We could get some money, cut his ears off and put them somewhere.”

Heart pounding, Paddy sucked in a breath and looked at the others. _This isn’t going to be good._ He took another shaky breath and then looked around. There was no way that he could escape. Over the course of the day, he’d taxed every bit of magic he’d had, he was already hurt when the others had decided they were going to try and explore, and he was completely surrounded. There had to be at least six heavily armed bandits, plus some others that were keeping watch that he couldn’t see yet.

Digging her claws into Paddy’s shoulder until he let out a cry of pain from the puncture wounds, the dragonborn lifted him up and smashed him into the earth again. “We’re not killing him just like that, Moira. Don’t be a bloody idiot.” She snarled, and Moira growled like not killing Paddy was some impossible task. “Now,” she smashed Paddy into the ground one, two, three times with very little pause in between. Something sharp cut into the side of his head, and he winced painfully. Leaning close and putting _way too much_ pressure on his shoulder, she hissed, “You hear that, little wood elf? We’re not going to kill you slowly. No, we’re going to rip you apart, and I think I’m going to start with those pretty little eyes of yours.” She dragged a claw around his eye, and he shuddered involuntarily. Belting a laugh, she kept applying pressure to his back and shoulder until there was a _thud-pop_ somewhere deep in his body. Crying out, he jerked against the ground, eyes burning as he squeezed them shut.

The other bandits laughed, and the dragonborn grabbed the back of Paddy’s neck in a meaty, scaled talon. Lifting him off of the ground, she tightened her claws around his throat and laughed when a hoarse, pained noise left his throat. “Come on, Kleldris! Make Fenwyn proud!” Someone cheered, and Paddy could see black spots dancing in his vision. Kleldris’ eyes narrowed, and she grinned wickedly.

Head falling back, Paddy felt his eyes drift closed as he stared at the stars above him.

+++

When they got back to the camp, Malark knew something was wrong.

“Paddy?” Mina called, looking around. A small frown crossed her face, and the water genasi glanced back. “Paddy!”

“Paddy, this isn’t funny!” Gimgar shouted, hands cupped around her mouth. Helping the hill dwarf up onto his shoulders, Nagar glanced around nervously as well. “Whitlaw! Come on, this isn’t one of your funny—”

“Guys!” Ava shouted, and everyone turned to look at her where she was standing. With a nervous look painting her face, she indicated a paper impaled to one of the oak trees by their camp with a knife. Striding over, heart leaping to his throat, Malark ripped the paper from the tree and read over it. “What does it say?”

Eyes flicking over the words, Malark growled, “Bandits. They came in here and ambushed Paddy, and now they’ve got him.” He turned to look at the others. “They gave us a landmark to find him at. If we can get to him before sunrise…then we’ll get him back. If not…” He trailed off and glanced back down at the letter. The words were scrawled in jagged red handwriting that was slowly turning brown. After a moment’s hesitation, he realised that it was written in blood. Probably Paddy’s, too.

Gimgar and Nagar looked at one another, and Malark handed the paper to the others. Every second that passed as they tried to figure out where the landmark was and what it was, another second that ticked by until Paddy died or was killed. Mina took the paper and then looked up. Apparently, she recognised whatever the drawing was.

“I know where that is.”

+++

They were going to beat him to death.

Yelling in pain, Paddy tried to pull away from the circle of cheering bandits as the green dragonborn who had nearly choked him to death, Kleldris, bit down hard into his arm. Flares of pain slashed up his arm, and dimly he remembered something about green dragonborn often having the ability to poison people. _Wouldn’t this be venom, though?_ He wondered.

The sky flipped and he was smashed into hard-packed dirt. “Come on, wood elf. Get up!” Kleldris snarled, digging her claws into where she had bit him and then grabbing him by the head with her other hand. She threw him upright, and he felt someone in the circle shove him back into the fight. _No, please._ “Your friends aren’t coming for you, so we’re going to have fun. Come on, wood elf, put on a show. You always used to.”

A fist connected with his ribs and he went staggering to the side, feeling some of his ribs cracking loudly. A sob left his throat and he felt a knife drive itself into his side. Turning, he took his eyes of Kleldris for one moment too long. She grabbed him by the back of the neck, lifted him off, and punched him in the face twice before throwing him to the side. “Come on, wood elf! You’re better than that!” Fenwyn, a blue dragonborn, shouted from where she stood at the side of the circle. Kleldris’ teeth dug into his arm even more, and he felt her claws dig into his neck even more.

Writhing, he kicked her in the ribs. With a roar, Kleldris dropped him, and he tried to stumble away. One of his ankles rolled to the side and he went down hard, wheezing in a few breaths. Painfully dragging himself to his feet, Paddy heard another terrifying, deafening roar behind him and turned.

The last thing he saw was a scaled green fist slamming towards his face.

+++

When they arrived, the bandits were around but Paddy was missing.

Roaring, Nagar charged into the fray and tackled the closest dragonborn, a green female who clearly was not expecting him. Eyes widening, she screamed, and Gimgar launched at the other dragonborn—a blue female. Malark and the others ducked into the fight as well, and the bandits were apparently not expecting High Hopes to be so pissed off. Which was bad for them.

For Malark and the others, though, it was great.

Slashing at one bandit after the other, Malark didn’t stop until the bandits weren’t moving anymore. In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw one of them holding Paddy’s stuff. He’d thought it _was_ Paddy for a moment, but then he saw blue skin and tiefling horns and he knew that he was looking at a bandit and not a wood elf.

Once they had taken care of the bandits, Malark scowled down at the green dragonborn lying at Nagar’s feet. Her snout was twisted into a snarl, and he scoffed down at her before turning to look for Paddy. He first checked the trees, trying to see what they might have done to him. Trying to find where they had shoved him.

There was nothing. For a heart-pounding moment, Malark worried that maybe they had made a mistake. Maybe they should have stuck around or kept one of the bandits alive to ask. The moon was high in the sky, and Malark glanced around at the grass. “Spread out, let’s see if we can find him.”

As they walked around the clearing, Malark found next to nothing. Dark conifers towered high above him, and he was pretty sure he saw some bags thrown up into some of the lower branches. None of the branches were strong enough to hold a full-grown wood elf, however, even if Paddy was on the lighter side and didn’t have some of his supplies on him. Either way, the bags were dark, too small, and he would have seen the flash of a white undershirt or the dark stains of blood with the way the moon was shining through the branches. Growling to himself, he looked around and noticed that there really wasn’t anything special about the clearing. Brio was busy looting some of the bandits’ bodies, while Mina watched over her with a definite scowl painting her face.

“Guys…” Everyone turned to look at Ava. The green-haired dwarf glanced down at the ground under her feet, a nervous look on her face. It had been recently upturned, plants ripped to the side and everything. Stepping away, she crouched down and pressed her palm to the mound of dirt. When she looked up, horrified, she added, “I think they buried him alive.”

+++

He couldn’t breathe.

When he stirred, he’d realised that he couldn’t move. Hard-packed dirt pressed into his sides and the back of his head. A few hairs above his skin, a shimmering border of magic was keeping him alive. He wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, but he could see glowing fibres of green leaves fluttering around him. Rather than just kill him, they were going to leave him to die slowly.

Coughing weakly, he felt some of the pressure increase on his chest. Somewhere in his ribs, there was a sudden _thud-pop_ and he cried out. Dirt fell into his mouth, and he jerked back and tried to cough and spit it out. _No. No, no, please. Not this way, not this way._

Struggling against the magic that held him, he tried scrabbling at the dirt around him. Tears burned in his eyes, and he could feel some of it turning to mud. Whatever magic they were using to keep him alive probably meant that he was well and truly stuck. Unless the bandits decided to release him, or the rest of High Hopes happened to find him…Paddy was as good as dead.

A weak sob left him again, and he choked on some of the dirt and pebbles that fell into his mouth. _Calm down, Paddy, it’s going to be okay._ He couldn’t breathe it was too tight of a space. _You need to calm down and conserve your air. Come on, Paddy._

The weight on top of his chest increased, and he let out a cry of pain that barely reached his own ears. The magic around him shattered and everything went dark as dirt started pouring down on him.

The earth was swallowing him.

+++

It took two minutes for them to dig down deep enough to find him.

Sweeping dirt away, Terra shouted when she found none other than their wood elf’s head. He was unconscious, and they started frantically digging away so that he could be pulled out safely. The bandits had tried to steal his cloak, jacket and gloves, which Malark had thought he’d seen but now realised he _had_ in fact seen one of the humans wearing them. It didn’t matter anyways, the bandits wouldn’t exactly be stealing much.

Once they got him out of the hole and onto the grass, Malark crouched down by him and gently brushed some dirt from the wood elf’s face. He wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t moving. Dirt and mud smeared over his face, hiding his freckles and his makeup. “Paddy.” Terra let out a panicked whimper, and Gimgar and Nagar stepped away and then went over to the bandits. In the corner of his eye, Malark swore he saw Mina kick one of the bandits’ bodies where it lay on the ground.

Terra dropped to her knees, and Ava gently touched her shoulder. A fierce look crossed Zada’s face. Growling, she sprinted over and immediately started working her magic with Paddy. “Zada, what are you doing?” Ava asked, and the moon elf glanced up for a total of one second before going back to work.

“He’s not dead yet, I can still do something and I’m doing it! Now, you, move!” She shoved Malark away, and he stumbled back a few steps before waiting by Nagar and Gimgar’s sides. Silence fell over all of them, and for a while Malark wasn’t sure whether or not Paddy was even breathing. Part of him highly doubted it. As much as he loved Zada…Malark couldn’t even tell if this was something Paddy _could_ survive.

Several long, terrifying moments passed, and Malark felt what little hope he’d had be replaced by a kind of indescribable emptiness. _He’s gone. We’ve lost him and it’s all because of some_ stupid bandits _._

Suddenly, Zada sat back and held Paddy down. The wood elf jerked, gasping loudly and hoarsely. Falling back against the ground, he wheezed and turned his head. Green eyes fluttered open and held Malark’s for one second, and a weak smile crossed his face before he passed out. “Zada?” Ava asked softly, and the moon elf carefully kept doing…whatever it was she did.

“He’ll be alright. He’s just tired.” She smiled at him, and Nagar came over. “You can pick his up, he doesn’t have any spinal injuries.” Nodding, Nagar carefully wrapped a hand around the back of Paddy’s neck carefully and then pulled the wood elf into his arms, shifting slowly until he was standing up straight. A low groan left Paddy’s throat, but he didn’t stir. “Let’s get him back home.”

Slowly, they started the trek back to their camp.

**Author's Note:**

> I did say that this was hurt no comfort, didn’t I? Ah, there’s probably going to be a little sequel fic tomorrow (in addition to one for “High Hopes Low Momentum”, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t read them). Also, if you have anything you really want to read but don’t want to write, just like drop it in the comments or something, I don’t mind. Heck, it could just be a prompt in the form of a title!  
> Anyways, hope to see you in the next fic! You’re all loved and appreciated and awesome and amazing and I hope you have a nice day!  
> Now, into the fray once more!


End file.
